Sign up for our daily recaps of the ever-changing search marketing landscape.

Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.

What Do Pamela Anderson, New Pornographers, & Women Rapping Have In Common? Google Blacklist Knows

Pamela Anderson is a well-known actress. The New Pornographers are an indie rock band. Women rapping are … well, presumably just females making music. All three are also part of a growing list of known “naughty” phrases that trip up Google Instant. Danny Sullivan has already written about this topic here on Search Engine Land […]

Pamela Anderson is a well-known actress. The New Pornographers are an indie rock band. Women rapping are … well, presumably just females making music. All three are also part of a growing list of known “naughty” phrases that trip up Google Instant.

The list, which is not safe for work and perhaps not safe for other readers, too, contains a lot of words and phrases you’d expect. But it also shows how far Google has gone to err on the side of caution in some cases.

As the image above shows, you can’t even get to the first “n” in Pamela Anderson’s last name before Google Instant shuts down. The “women rapping” example is joined by “rapping women” and even “wrapping men” (with a “w”) as phrases that trip the filter … perhaps due to an overactive fear of bad spellers.

Google Instant’s naughty word list is evolving, too. The word “marijuana” was originally on a not-fltered word list, but Google later started filtering that, too.

About The Author

Matt McGee joined Third Door Media as a writer/reporter/editor in September 2008. He served as Editor-In-Chief from January 2013 until his departure in July 2017. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee.